Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
North Pole Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl with a spoon.
Pour in the maraschino and stir until creamy.
Form the threads
Boil clarified sugar until it reaches a boil.
Using a funnel, pour the egg mixture into the boiling sugar until exhausted, ensuring it spreads throughout the syrup.
Remove from heat and use a fork to take out the threads, placing them on a grating in small heaps.
Dry and finish
Dry the heaps in a warm place for several hours, then candy them as previously described.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Provide richness and set the candy's creamy, custard-like structure as they cook in the syrup.
- Maraschino
- Adds liquid and a sweet, fruity aroma to the egg mixture.
- Clarified sugar
- Forms the syrup that the egg mixture is poured into, giving the candy its sweetness and body.
The step that matters
Pouring the egg mixture into the boiling sugar. Pouring through a funnel in a thin stream spreads the egg mixture into fine threads as it hits the hot syrup. Pouring too fast or in one spot can clump it into uneven pieces.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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